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Khaira Arby is the reigning queen of song in Timbuktu, Mali. She's been writing and singing in the indigenous languages of her Sahara Desert region — Sonrhai, Tamaschek, Bambara, Arabic — for decades. Her robust voice, roiling grooves and direct lyrics, often addressing sensitive issues, have made her a legend in her own time.

Perhaps Arby's greatest social impact in a conservative Islamic milieu has been her advocacy on behalf of women. She divorced a controlling husband to pursue a career in music. (She's since remarried.) As a singer, she's opened the door to a generation of artistic women who now follow in her footsteps. Arby has also sung against the practice of female genital mutilation, and in "Waidio," she decries the "anguish of women," insisting that they must be free to pursue their own happiness. Arby asks, "Why, in a country of beautiful women, do men go to war?" The song showcases Arby's powerful vocal in her first language, Sonrhai, as well as the amazingly tight groove of her electric-guitar-driven band.

Peaking Lights (Not Not Fun)

Peaking Lights the husband and wife duo of Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis have channeled a rich background of a lives dedicated to music, touring, and pushing artistic broundries into a band that reflects their relationship; a sum that transcends its parts. Finding themselves in a cross country move from the Bay Area to a house built into a barn in rural Wisconsin, Peaking Lights sound origin was created with humility and love with a personal touch directed by Aaron's home built synths, effects units, and rhythm machines. Peaking Lights have maintained a sound distinction all of their own fusing influences as wide ranging as afro beat, disco, psychedelic rock, synth pop, krautrock, reggae and noise into songs that are as smooth, lush and elegant as they are propulsive, rhythmic and noisy. Recordings were initially showcased on Night-People Records cassette releases along with their debut full length 2009's Imaginary Falcons which brought the band into full view of the underground music community. Imaginary Falcons quickly gained critical praise for its distinct qualities as a lo-fi masterpiece fusing analog electronics with blown out psych guitar flourishes, while Indra's warm drifting vocals provided an unexpected serenity to the music. Finding a sound related to but not fully in debt to Jamaican dub pioneers Peaking Lights continued writing and recording and in 2010 went into Flat Black Studio's to record 936 a recording that reached Peaking Lights full capabilities aesthetically merging dub and dance influences more fully into their sonic pallet already rich in electronic exploration. 936 retains many of Peaking Lights lo-fi electronic techniques but boosts the overall depth of sound to create a record that is lush in its use of analog delay, deep bass, rhythmic creation, and stunning yet simple vocal beauty. 936 was released on Not Not Fun Records in 2011 garnering even more critical praise for Peaking Lights. Currently Peaking Lights finds themselves tending to their new born son Mikko and planning for future recordings and tours.

Moon Pearl is an evolving attempt to express overwhelming jubilance via multi-timbric excess and the utilization and subsequent abolishment of residual negativity. We feel strongly about the recursive nature of living and push for forward momentum without neglecting the potential of and patterns that pervade the present.